880 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Guettarda with about fifty species is chiefly tropical American, with one species widely 

 distributed on maritime shores from east tropical Africa to Australia and the islands of the 

 Pacific Ocean. Of the species found within the territory of the United States two are ar- 

 borescent. The bark of some of the species is occasionally employed as a tonic and febri- 

 fuge, and a -few species are cultivated in tropical gardens for the delightful fragrance of 

 their white flowers. 



The generic name is in honor of Jean fitienne Guettard (1715-1786), the distinguished 

 French botanist and mineralogist. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Leaves thin, pilose or glabrate above. 1. G. elliptica (D). 



Leaves coriaceous, hispidulose-papillose and scabrate above. 2. G. scabra (D). 



1. Guettarda elliptica Sw. 



Leaves broad-oval to oblong-elliptic, acute or obtuse and apiculate at apex, and cuneate 

 or rounded at base, covered with pale silky hairs when they unfold, and at maturity thin, 

 dark green, pilose or glabrate on the upper surface, lighter colored and pubescent on the 

 lower surface, especially along the stout midrib and in the axils of the 4-6 pairs of primary 

 veins, f'-2|' long and |'-1' wide; unfolding in Florida in May and June and persistent on 

 the branches until the trees begin their growth the following year; petioles stout, hairy, 



Fig. 774 



\'-% f in length. Flowers pedicellate, appearing in Florida in June, yellowish white, \' long, 

 in slender hairy-stemmed cymes from the axils of leaves of the year near the end of 

 branches, or from bud-scales at base of young shoots, their peduncle shorter than the leaves, 

 forked near the apex, often with a flower in the fork and 3 at the end of each branch, or 

 the lateral flowers of these clusters replaced by branches producing 3 flowers at their apex, 

 the bractlets subtending the branches of the peduncle, and the lateral flowers of the ulti- 

 mate divisions of the inflorescence linear-lanceolate, acute, coated with hairs, about ^ 

 long, deciduous; calyx-lobes nearly triangular, acute, coated on the outer surface with long 

 pale hairs, and half as long as the erect corolla canescent externally, with rounded lobes. 

 Fruit ripening in November, dark purple, pilose,* \' in diameter, crowned with the rem- 

 nants of the persistent calyx-tube, the flesh sweet and mealy; stone obscurely ridged and 

 usually 2-4-seeded; seeds oblong-lanceolate, compressed, nearly straight, with a thin pale 

 coat. 



A tree, in Florida occasionally 18-20 high, with an irregularly buttressed or lobed trunk 



